Flat-topped hills, grass instead of forest, and villages that look down on the clouds. Talamali is the Koraput most visitors never hear about, and the one place we always check the road for before we promise it.

Country
Semiliguda–Pottangi highlands
From our base
About 1 h, road depending
Best months
October to February
Confirm first
Road checked the same week

What Talamali is

A broad, flat-topped hill in the belt of highlands between Semiliguda and Pottangi, high enough that the tree line thins out and the top is open grass. Some groups know it as the Pendajam table mountain. There is no gate, no ticket and no tea stall: you park where the road gives up, walk out onto the top and the valleys open on three sides.

Mist lying in a valley below the Koraput hills in the early morning
The Koraput highlands at first light. The plateau tops sit above this line of mist.

Putsil, on the same road

Putsil is a hill village in the same country, usually paired with Talamali in a single morning. It is a working village, not a viewpoint with a car park, so we keep the group together, ask before photographing anyone and buy from whoever is selling. The drive between the two is the good part: red soil, millet terraces and long empty ridgelines.

The honest part

  • The last stretch to the top is rough. After heavy rain, a 17-seater sometimes stops short and the walk is fifteen to twenty minutes uphill.
  • We check the road in the week you travel and tell you honestly whether the Traveller can get there. If it cannot, we say so before you book, not on the morning.
  • There is no food, no fuel and patchy mobile coverage up there. Carry water and eat in Semiliguda.
  • Go early. By midday the haze flattens the view and the light stops being worth the drive.

How a group day runs

Leave Koraput or Semiliguda around six, be on the top for the clear hour after sunrise, walk for as long as the group wants, then breakfast on the way down. Most groups are back by lunch, which leaves the afternoon for Upper Kolab or the town temple and museum. It also pairs naturally with Deomali if you want two highland mornings in a row.

Photographers: the table tops face east and west, so sunrise and sunset both work. Ask the driver to stop on the ridge road rather than only at the top, which is where the layered-hill shots come from.

Combine it with